


Etymology

by breakdancingsigma (hetawholockvengerstuck)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, fixed up the formatting because wtf ao3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-13 04:18:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11176875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hetawholockvengerstuck/pseuds/breakdancingsigma
Summary: Joey has gone by many different names throughout his life.





	Etymology

"What exactly _is_ your name?" Seto asked.

"What do you mean?" Joey replied. They were sitting in Seto's home office after dinner, Joey reformatting his deck (again) and Seto filling out paperwork. Currently, his elegant hands were hovering over the keyboard to his laptop.

"I'm putting you down as an emergency contact for Mokuba,  just in case they can't reach me from his school." Seto gestured to the screen. "I need your full legal name."

"Okay, that's two different questions."

Seto frowned. "How is that?"

"Look, it's kind of a long story--"

"I've got time."

Joey sighed. "My dad's last name was Wheeler when he was in the States, but he changed it to Jounouchi, his mother's maiden name, when he moved here. Made it easier to interact with people who didn't take kindly to a foreigner with mixed heritage. My mom wanted to give me a Japanese name and my dad wanted to give me an English name. They settled on both, but my mom got to decide my legal name. So I was born Jounouchi Katsuya, but my dad and his side of the family always called me Joey.

"They had the same argument about names when my sister was born, but by then they were starting to drift apart and my dad won the argument. So my sister was Jounouchi Serenity, but my mom called her Shizuka when Dad wasn't around to hear her. And we went by whichever name suited the occasion when we met up with family from my dad or mom's side.

"Then they split up, and I stayed with my dad while my mom took Serenity. Mom took back her maiden name and legally changed Serenity's to Kawai Shizuka. Dad was pretty fed up with Japan but didn't have the money or motivation to move back to the States with a kid, so he changed his surname back to Wheeler and I became Joseph Wheeler. Thing is, my legal name is still Katsuya, so technically I'm Katsuya Wheeler."

Joey was aware of Seto's eyes on him, but he couldn't bring himself to meet the gaze. It was always unnerving when Seto went silent like that, especially after Joey had just monologued to him about the particulars of his past...

"So which one do you prefer?"

"Huh?" Joey asked.

"Which iteration of your name do you feel suits you best?" Kaiba rephrased, speaking slowly.

Joey opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. Which one _did_ he prefer? His friends had always called him Joey, because he liked how casual it was without sounding super intimate.  But it was his father's name for him, and had never been his legal name. His mother and sister had been the only people calling him Katsuya for the longest time, and he'd always sort of liked the sound of it. At the same time, it was used so infrequently that it felt somehow improper to start going by it. Yet it was still a part of him, and it was a part without ties to his father.

The same could not be said for any iteration of his surname. The time when he'd been Jonouchi had been a better time, when his parents still loved each other and his dad was kind and responsible. But it was also a reminder of what he could never have again. It was also a name that his mother had actively shunned when she left his father, and which probably reminded her of the later years of her failed marriage.  Wheeler, on the other hand, had a direct correlation to his father's current state of being, and it was also extremely difficult for most people to say. It always came out as _Wheerer_ or _Wheerel_ on the first try. Not only that, but among those citizens who still shunned outsiders or mixed-race progeny, the name _Wheeler_ was sure to get him ostracized.

"I...don't know," Joey finally said. "I guess I'm just so used to using the name that fits the situation."

Seto closed his laptop and shoved it to the side of his desk. "Let me put it a different way: which name should I be calling out in bed?"

A jolt of electricity rocketed along Joey's spine. "Uh..."

"Joseph?" Seto asked, his voice pitched in that way that always made Joey's knees turn to jelly. "Jonouchi? _Katsuya?_ "

There was no difference in tone or inflection on the name, but the moment  Seto said it in _that voice_ , Joey felt his eyes flutter closed and moan build in his chest. A certain part of his anatomy was definitely paying attention now.

It didn't escape Seto's notice. "Oh, you like that one. Or do you? Would you permit me to test this theory, _Katsuya?_ "

" _Fuck_ ," was all Joey could say.

And Seto obliged.


End file.
